Committee Updates April 2015

Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Bill

Following on from our written evidence, James Mulgrew from our Criminal Law Committee gave oral evidence to the Justice Committee at the Scottish Parliament on 24 March. We are supportive of the policy intent if the bill, and in particular the desire to prevent and tackle human trafficking and exploitation and make Scotland a hostile place for traffickers. In the oral evidence session we highlighted our support of a victim-centred approach and that we would favour the introduction of both a statutory defence, which would be available to a person who has committed an offence as a direct consequence of having been trafficked and the possibility of a plea in bar of trial. This would be in addition to the bill’s proposal for a requirement on the Lord Advocate to publish guidelines on prosecuting victims of human trafficking offences.

The full written evidence and a link to the oral evidence session is available on our website